


The Babe On The Doorstep

by afteriwake



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Adopted Children, Child Abandonment, F/M, Happy Ending, Holmes Family Feels, Light Angst, Marriage, Post-Season/Series 04 Finale, Secret Relationship, Uneasy Mycroft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-29
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-04-17 19:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,001
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4677983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One morning an infant is left on Mycroft’s doorstep with a note, signed by a woman named Laura. As Mycroft tries to find out who would entrust a child into his care he slowly opens his heart to the infant and lets the other people in his life that he’s kept at arms length in more, bit by bit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [onceinabluemoon13](https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceinabluemoon13/gifts).



> So I was asked by the ever lovely **onceinabluemoon13** what tropes I loved that I hadn't written yet, and I mentioned that for ages I'd wanted to write some "baby left on the doorstep of a childless couple" fic for either Sherlock/Molly or Mycroft/Anthea, and I was encouraged to write both. So this is the Mycroft/Anthea answer to that encouragement. I'm not sure how long it will hopefully but hopefully it will not languish forever. Anyway, enjoy!

He had been dozing in bed, enjoying one of his very rare days where he did not have meetings, when there was a knock at the door. His bedroom overlooked the entrance to his home, and he could have easily looked out his window to see who was there, but he didn’t want to be arsed to get out of bed, not when he was nice and warm and comfortable with Andrea curled up by his side. The second knock, followed by a third and then by a sound he hadn’t expected to hear caused him to slowly sit up and take notice.

It was the unmistakable wail of an infant.

Anthea began to stir once he pulled away from her. “Is that a baby crying?” she murmured sleepily, yawning.

“I believe so,” he said, pulling back the sheets and quilt that were on top of him. She did the same moments later. He went to the back of his door and got his dressing gown, slipping it on and tying the sash. When Andrea had gotten hers on they made their way down the stairs to the foyer and then to the front door. He opened it and they both looked down at the top of his steps.

There was a car seat on the stoop with an infant strapped inside, wailing. The infant had a pink blanket tucked around it and a note pinned at the baby’s feet. A bottle had been tossed on the ground by the side of the car seat and there was a diaper bag by the side. The infant couldn’t have been more than a few days old. Anthea moved around him and knelt down to unlatch the little girl and pull her out of the car seat. Then she reached over and picked up the bottle, giving it to her. She quieted down. “Mycroft, take the note off her blanket,” she said.

Mycroft broke out of his trance and then reached for the note on the blanket, unpinning it. He opened it and read it aloud. “’Mister Holmes,’” he said. “’I can’t take care of this little girl. I can’t put her in an orphanage and I’m afraid I don’t have any family to take her in. You were kind to me, and I hope you will take care of her and make sure she’s looked after. I’m so sorry to do this to you but I couldn’t think of anyone else to turn to. Laura.’” He looked up, frowning. “I have no idea who left her here. I can’t recall any Laura.”

“Well, she certainly trusts you,” Anthea said, a slight edge to her voice. That was peculiar. Was she…jealous? She had no reason to be. “Get the car seat and the bag and let’s bring her inside. We need to decide a few things.” She moved around him again and then went back into his home.

He knelt down and picked up the car seat and the bag, bringing them into his home and shutting the door behind him. He went forward and saw that Anthea had gone into the sitting room, sitting on the sofa. He set the car seat in front of the sofa and then sat down next to her, setting the diaper bag next to him. He began to rummage through it, seeing no documents of any kind in there. There were a few diapers and a tin of formula and a few articles of clothing. “I don’t think this child was born at a hospital,” he said.

“No documentation?” she asked, turning to him.

He shook his head. “Nothing whatever. No photographs, either.”

Andrea turned back to the child. “I suppose we should give her a name. Something to call her while she’s in our care.”

He looked over at the infant. She seemed pretty enough, he supposed. There was soft wisps of dark curly hair on the top of her head, and she had chubby cheeks and chubby hands. Her eyes were closed as she drank from the bottle. “Have you ever wanted children?” he asked.

“I did, once, a long time ago,” she said quietly. She reached over and ran a finger along the little girl’s cheek. “I was told when I was twenty-three it would probably very hard for me to get pregnant. Not impossible, but I would continue to have painful menstruation cycles if I didn’t go on birth control, and if I went off of it…” She gave him a sad smile. “I’d given up hope.”

He nodded. Truthfully he hadn’t wanted children. He’d never thought to ask Andrea about it, knowing she was on birth control, but knowing she did want children, he wasn’t sure he could not keep this infant in his home. He’d lose her for sure if he said he didn’t want to keep her. “Why don’t you name her, then?” he asked.

Her eyes widened slightly. “Are you…are you going to try and keep her?”

“I’m going to see what I can do,” he said with a nod. He looked at her intently. “I don’t want to do it alone. I don’t think I could manage it. That means we’ll need to live together all the time. And we’ll need to make our relationship public, with whatever that entails.”

Her smile turned warm and she nodded. “Of course,” she said. “I have no problem with any of that.”

“Good,” he said, giving her a faint smile.

She smiled more widely and then turned back to the baby, stroking the baby’s cheek softly. “If I’d been lucky enough to have a daughter, I’d wanted to name her Eloisa, after my mother. Eloisa Madeline.”

“I believe Eloisa Madeline Holmes is an appropriate name,” he said with a nod. He watched the two of them for a moment before leaning back in his seat. There were things he must do, of course. People he needed to call, paperwork he needed to fill out, arrangements he needed to make. This was going to be a very abrupt change in his life, he knew that, but as he saw the smile on Andrea’s face he knew that no matter the difficulties that lay ahead he would give this infant the absolute best life he could. If he was going to be entrusted with the responsibility he would live up to it to the fullest.


	2. Chapter 2

He was used to needing very little sleep to function. He was _not_ , however, used to being awoken at every odd hour of the night. By the end of the week, he honestly wondered how on earth his parents hadn’t gone mad between him and his brother and sister. Probably not the best line of thought, all things considered with his family history, but so be it. And so it was that he arose before the sun had even risen, bleary eyed and shuffling and not even close to his normally well-rested self to begin breakfast for himself and Andrea.

She had decided to take on the bulk of the duties regarding Eloisa. He was grateful for that because he didn’t have the first clue what to do with a child, especially one so young. They had asked Dr. Watson to come look at her, and he’d said best he could tell she was no more than a week old at most. Generally healthy, but he didn’t know for sure. They should take her to a pediatrician to be sure. But Mycroft had said no to that for the moment, just until waters could be tested to the reaction of his relationship with Anthea.

They had agreed on a rushed wedding, with strings discretely pulled to make it legal. No frills, no ceremony, just a handful of people as witnesses and the officiant and that was all. She deserved better, he knew, but time was of the essence. To be quite honest, he knew the words spread about him in the smaller and larger circles of government. Either that he was colder than ice or gayer than a maypole. Neither of which was true, but a sudden marriage to his assistant and the arrival of a child in his home was going to cause less questions than cohabitation between himself and Andrea.

So far things had seemed fairly tepid. No major ripples had occurred in his circles of influence with the small announcement in the papers of his nuptials. They would save the announcement of the adoption of Eloisa for later, but first things first, the hurdle of his marriage. A step he had never imagined himself taking, but strangely, he felt comfortable with.

He just hoped, after a week of _this_ , Andrea felt the same.

Even at his most tired he still managed to make a decent breakfast. They had managed to finagle a few weeks off when he had discreetly let it be known he had a “family emergency.” Most people assumed it had to do with his brother, as per usual, or at worse, the hidden sister who had come to light, and let it be. The less talked about the younger Holmes siblings, the government had decided, the better. Mycroft still had problems from Eurus’s plot to deal with three years ago, but at the very least, he had a greater berth given to him when it came to his family now. It came in handy, especially now when he was trying to get used to a new arrangement in his household.

He carefully settled two servings of French toast on a tray, along with some juice and some milk. Andrea’s share had fruit in a berry sauce and powdered sugar, an indulgence he did not allow himself, and he felt she would appreciate the treat. Then he began the ascent from his kitchen to the bedroom. Since she had installed herself in his home after the incident, Andrea had made his house more of a home and less of a dwelling. He was rather thankful for that, he realized as he saw the horizon begin to lighten in the windows.

He was not surprised to see her awake, as he knew she usually woke up before dawn, but he _was_ surprised to see Eloisa on the bed, nestled on his side of the bed. “I see I have been replaced,” he replied.

Andrea smiled, not looking up from her mobile. “She was crying, and I felt it best to bring her in here.”

“Ah,” he said, moving around to her side of bed with the tray and setting it on her nightstand. “I thought you might like a treat, as you have worked hard this week.”

She pulled her attention away from the screen and smiled up at him. “Thank you, husband mine,” she replied, and he felt a warmth in the pit of his stomach at those words. She did not mind the change in their status much, it seemed. “She will be fine where she’d at. Come sit next to me and eat.” She sat up more and moved her legs in so Mycroft could sit next to her.

He sat down and glanced over at Eloisa. “Are you happy?” he asked, his voice a bit above a murmur.

“I admit it’s a bit rushed, but yes, I am,” she said. After a moment she reached over and touched his arm, causing him to look at her. “Are you? And the truth, Mycroft.”

“I am...slowly getting there,” he said. “I am happy with you, as I have been for some time. I am still adjusting to the new aspects of my life.”

She gripped his arm lightly. “I know this isn’t what you expected. It probably isn’t what you wanted. But I’m glad you’re trying.”

He cast another glance at Eloisa before looking back at Andrea. “I am too,” he said. And he did mean it, he did, but he wasn’t entirely sure he would _always_ mean it. But, for now, he did. That was a start.


End file.
